W&m Finds New Pride

WILLIAMSBURG — A quick glance into the William and Mary football media guide tells you all you need to know about defense.

Last year in a 7-4-1 season the Indians allowed a total of 233 points. If that figure sounds a little high, consider this: It was the lowest point total posted in Williamsburg since 1979.

So if the 1988 season cannot be considered a benchmark year in defensive achievement at W&M, at least it established that a transition was taking shape.

Gradual, maybe, but a transition.

"We used to play some pretty wild games," said W&M senior rover Greg Kimball. "We gave up an astronomical number of points. I can remember a lot of times when we thought we were doing well if we held the other team under 25. That didn't reflect a lack of ability or a lack of effort on the part of the defense. We always tried hard. But we just had confidence that the offense would pull us through."

That philosophy changed last year when Mike Kolakowski became the defensive coordinator. Rather than let the Indians sit back on defense and react to what the other team was doing, Kolakowski transformed the W&M defense into an aggressive, attacking unit.

Although Kolakowski has since left W&M (he's at Maine), new defensive coordinator Phil Janaro has kept the same approach. When the 20th-ranked Indians host Colgate Saturday (Cary Field, 1 p.m.) in their season opener, the defense will again carry the aggressive approach.

"Instead of waiting for something to happen, we want to force the action," said Kimball, fourth on the team in tackles last year. "Now we try to force other teams to react to what we're doing."

That approach resulted in 26 turnovers and 35 sacks caused by the defense last year. The W&M offense, meanwhile, had only 17 turnovers.

"We want to cause mistakes and put teams into situations they don't want to be in," said Kimball.

The Indians had stretches where they did that very well last year. The defense had a streak of 10 straight quarters without allowing a touchdown and, discounting two games against I-A rivals, W&M allowed more than 24 points only twice last year in I-AA ranks.

"We played pretty well most of the time," said Kimball. "We had exceptions, like the game at Delaware (a 38-35 W&M loss), but generally speaking I think we really turned the corner last year defensively."

"We feel good about the defense," said W&M Coach Jimmye Laycock. "We have some inexperience at linebacker, but we're pretty solid up front and the secondary is good."

Kolakowski may be missed, but Janaro's defensive approach remains pretty much the same as that of his predecessor.

Kimball's position has undergone some changes. Last year he played at strong safety but that spot, as well as one of the linebacker positions, have been classified as rovers this fall. Another defensive back, Mike Drake, also plays the rover.

That means the 215-pound Kimball will play a linebacker-type role at times and fill in as a defensive back on others.

"I've seen a lot of changes here. We used to be known as pretty much of an offensive team but now this defense prides itself on being able to contribute. We're confident we can do even better than we did last year."